Ah OK, so your point in the original message is that you could not get independent software into your phone.
Because there sure was PLENTY of independent software for Symbian, and the system does very little to restrict what these apps can do.
Off the top of my head, a few simple ways to install apps in these devices that are independent of the operator and theis offerings:
1. Website that allows you to enter your phonenumber, and sends an installation URL via SMS. Just a few clicks on the phone side, very simple. For example Google uses this. <http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/>;
2. Enter the short mobile optimized URL in the phone. How hard exactly is it to enter something like "m.google.com/maps" to the browser of your phone?
3. Send SIS/JAR file over Bluetooth to the device -- quite a few of my "non-techie" friends have managed to do this.
I fully agree that Apple has made game changing improvements to mobile applications, especially on the user experience side. But to say that there is no independent software for Symbian is plain wrong.
I believe I said was not is. I gave up on Symbian in 2007. I'd also like to pint out that in 2006 I was working with ex-Symbian employees and they seemed equally clueless about how you would go about installing software onto my device. The answer they gave involved a Java compiler and programming environment.
I don't think we disagreed on the tense: My point is that there was indeed plenty of apps for Symbian.
I find it extremely odd that someone working with Symbian wouldn't know HOW to install apps in the phone. Or maybe they were not tech people?
I had to check some dates:
We released "Pro Session Golf" first as part of the N93 Golf Edition package in 2006[1], and later in 2007[2] as a downloadable standalone. And it definitely wasn't the only Symbian app around at the time!
Where are you based? I am from Finland, I guess Symbian
products and especially app culture varied a lot between countries.
BTW, about ways to install apps to Symbian devices, I forgot the popular and simple way that I personally hated: Nokia PC Suite and USB or Bluetooth -connection.
I gave up on Symbian long before 2007 and I had plenty of 3rd party apps (and developed a few myself). If you took an iPhone, put a capacitive touch screen on it, and made it fat ugly and slow then you'd have the phone I had 10 years ago.
Because there sure was PLENTY of independent software for Symbian, and the system does very little to restrict what these apps can do.
Off the top of my head, a few simple ways to install apps in these devices that are independent of the operator and theis offerings:
1. Website that allows you to enter your phonenumber, and sends an installation URL via SMS. Just a few clicks on the phone side, very simple. For example Google uses this. <http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/>;
2. Enter the short mobile optimized URL in the phone. How hard exactly is it to enter something like "m.google.com/maps" to the browser of your phone?
3. Send SIS/JAR file over Bluetooth to the device -- quite a few of my "non-techie" friends have managed to do this.
I fully agree that Apple has made game changing improvements to mobile applications, especially on the user experience side. But to say that there is no independent software for Symbian is plain wrong.